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Housing MInister Chris Bishop sets 'long-term' price target of three to five times household incomes (www.rnz.co.nz)

submitted 9 months ago by Ilovethebomb to c/politics

19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

National have committed to keeping most of the density rules they agreed to with Labour, with the tweak of giving councils a little more flexibility around where people can build up to three storeys. Overall a great move, and one that will hopefully have a downwards pressure on house prices.

They have also indicated they plan to build more state houses, as well.

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[–] Rangelus 7 points 9 months ago

I have a few concerns here.

Firstly, leaving things up to the councils can lead to NIMBYs pushing any medium and high density development out of where it needs to be - close to the centre. Paying lip service to allowing higher density housing is all very well and good, but if they let local councils deny it it's as good as saying they don't want it at all, isn't it?

Secondly, this is going take up more and more arable land, something which I think we need to be very careful of doing. There is plenty of space within most cities, if we build up, that we shouldn't need to take good farmland to put 1000m2 sections on with a 2h commute.

Thirdly, expansion without infrastructure is a recipe for disaster. Our infrastructure is already bad enough, but it will only be stressed further as cities grow larger and larger. Not to mention transportation. If these things aren't planned accordingly, then the whole exercise will fall apart.

Finally, with the relaxation of taxes on landlords, what is stopping landlords from borrowing and buying up all the new buildings? If they want more people into their own home, we should be building a lot very quickly, and limiting how much landlords can offset their incomes with repayments. Most high-density cities around the world are at best net-zero when it comes to rents to mortgage, and many are negative. Here in NZ I can rent a house out, pay off the mortgage and make a small profit from the rents on top of that.